Hilton Home2 Development
The owners of the Roomba Inn & Suites next to Old Town in Kissimmee expect about a ninemonth review process before they can begin demolition work on the site and start building a new Hilton Home2 Suites.
CTN Developments Vice President Abdul Alshoghri met last week with county planners for the first time to discuss the $42 million redevelopment. He was joined by his local team from FEG and Scott+Cormia. “At this point, it was mainly to introduce them to the project,” FEG Principal Jean AbiAoun said. He and Alshoghri explained that the redevelopment of the nearly 7-acre site would take place in two phases. Phase 1 would include a new six-story, 140-room Home2Suites hotel, GrowthSpotter first reported in early October. An existing retail building on the north end of the property would be demolished after the current leases expire in late 2017, and would provide temporary parking for the hotel. CTN would construct 18,000 square feet of new dining and retail space as part of the second phase. Alshoghri told GrowthSpotter that CTN plans to operate both hotels for a year before demolishing the 30-year-old Roomba and replacing it with a new seven-story hotel and entertainment attraction on the back half of the property. The conceptual plan calls for a 46,500-square-foot entertainment plaza that would include plenty of outdoor seating, fountains, landscaping and light towers that project a public light show every night. Alshoghri said the size of the attraction would rely heavily on the amount of available acreage after meeting parking and stormwater requirements for the hotels and retail portion of the project. While county staff typically encourage property owners on the W192 corridor to rezone to Commercial Tourist zoning, in this case they suggested keeping the current Planned Development. Alshoghri said CTN would likely file for a major PD amendment and may seek a variance to reduce the parking requirements. County code requires one parking space per hotel room and one space for every 300 square feet of retail space. Community Development Program Manager Cori Carpenter told Alshoghri county staff could approve a parking reduction up to 15 percent, but anything greater than that would have to go before the Board of Adjustment.
Source: Laura Kinsler, GrowthSpotter